The top fifty names in India’s willful defaulters list owe a combined Rs 92,570 crore to banks (as on March 31), the government informed Parliament.

According to a response filed by MOS Finance Bhagwat Karad, Gitanjali Ratna, owned by fugitive Mehul Choksi7,848 crore dues, which makes it the top Guilty in the list.

Sarkar said Era Infra with Rs 5,879 crore and Reigo Agro with Rs 4,803 crore are in the next two slots.

Others on the list include concast Steel & Power (Rs 4,596 crore), ABG Shipyard (Rs 3,708 crore), Frost International (Rs 3,311 crore), Lovely Diamonds and Jewelery Rs 2,931 crore), Rotomac Global (Rs 2,893 crore), Coastal Projects (Rs 2,311 crore) and Zoom Developers (Rs 2,147 crore).

Banks have written off bad loans worth Rs 11.17 lakh crore from their books in the last six years till the financial year 2021-22, Parliament was informed.

Banks write off NPAs as part of their regular exercise to clean up their balance sheets. This exercise is done as per RBI regulations and their Board approved policy.

Karad said the total number of willful defaulters with loans of Rs 25 lakh and above in public sector banks was 8,045 as on June 30, 2017 and 12,439 as on June 30, 2022. In the case of private sector banks, it was 1,616. 2,447 on 30th June, 2017 and 2,447 on 30th June, 2022. As per RBI data, as on 30.6.2017, there were 8,744 suit-file willful defaulters and 917 non-sit-file willful defaulters in public and private sector banks. and as on 30.6.2022, the same stand at 14,485 and 401 respectively,” Parliament was told.

The list of willful defaulters who have filed suit for Rs.25 lakh and above is available in the public domain on the websites of Credit Information Companies (CICs) and the willful defaulters who have not filed suits are confidential in nature and not in the public domain.

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